The Blood of Darkness

Chapter 53

Val

Every night I was imprisoned in the occupied castle of Nieves was the same.

Quiet. Agonizing. Vacant.

Almost dreamlike. Immaterial. An illusory experience. Nothing more than a hallucination.

Sometimes the quiet would fade, and I would think I heard ghosts. Echoes of laughter, footfalls, playful duels, keys jangling.

But those echoes would soon turn into screams—screams of the dying, the angry, the broken, the defiant.

Only after a while would I realize that the screams were my own. Because I was dying, angry, broken, defiant.

I would be curled up in my cold cell, knees pulled against my chest, my own blood staining my hands. Pain ebbed through me, sometimes sharp, sometimes dull, and sometimes just so completely that my whole world splintered into tiny shards and my mind went far, far away.

Manar's careful, level footsteps approaching my cell always brought me back though. I would blink a few times, think oh, this again, of course.

I would start talking before he even entered the cell. "No," was all I said, over and over. Just one word was all my dry, cracked lips seemed to know. No, I won't be your bride. No, I'm not your Valerie darling. No, not the pain again. No, please stop. No, I won't marry you. No, no, no, no.

I'm not in a cell right now, but I'm in a castle, and that still seems to be enough to bring memories crashing back.

"Val?" Neve asks quietly, coming up behind me from where I stand tensely on the balcony. "Do you want the sofa or the bed?"

I whip around to face her, more startled than I'd care to admit. "Neve," I say quickly, forcing a smile. "Sorry. I—I'll take the couch."

Her brows crease. "Are you sure?"

I nod. "I don't think I'll be sleeping that much tonight anyway."

"Honestly, I feel the same," she says, joining me on the balcony. "I'm worried about my mother. Her being kidnapped....it's preposterous, but it....it kind of makes sense."

I brace my hands against the balcony's railing, trying to ignore the images that have begun to swirl in my mind. Smoke in the air and dawn announcing itself through cracks of sunlight eerily illuminating the dark clouds. "How so?"

Neve looks down over the railing, all the way to the ground of the courtyard, blonde hair falling into her face. "She sent me here, to Trivette, right when Nieves was initially invaded. She and my father were....disagreeing about the situation with Rurik and the Dark King. My father....he wanted assured peace and safety as soon as possible. And he said that that would demand...." Her voice catches. "Sacrifice."

I remain silent, waiting for her to either continue or not. After a moment, Neve laughs bitterly. "I don't know why I'm telling you this. I should tell Kye and Zyair—they're the ones I spent a year living with."

"Tell me or don't tell me. I don't care." I do care, in fact, because I've grown to see Neve as a friend, and I feel like the information she withholds might be important. But I'd rather not push her. It's unnecessary.

Neve looks at me, her brown eyes glimmering with a combination of sadness and anger. "My father wanted to give me to the Dark King—offer me to him as a bride, as a human peace treaty between Asilo and Rurik before war even began. I doubt it would have even worked out knowing now that the King already had his sights set on you, Val, but my mother, terrified and enraged by my father's proposition, sent me away before any deal could even be proposed."